Teaching the Holocaust: proceed with caution

Winnipeg Free Press

14 hours ago

Opinion
Thanks to Byron Rempel-Burkholder (A more varied curriculum, Letters, Free Press, May 7) for suggesting that Holocaust Studies are wasted if the study of human atrocities stops there. And a special thanks to John Longhurst (Yair Rosenberg in North American Jews face rising antisemitism, speaker warns, Free Press, May 9) for addressing the intricacies and inadequacies associated with 'just talking about the Holocaust' as 'not enough.'
Rosenberg admits that the Israel-Gaza war has not only stoked the fires of antisemitism but also increased the urgency to address current scapegoating and conspiracy theories about Jews.
One thing I'm sure of is teaching about the Holocaust won't be easy — it is not just a simple curriculum fix or another moment in history. The Holocaust cannot be treated objectively and dispassionately. And today, Holocaust studies will lead us directly into discussing the Gaza conflict, one which most teachers have been told to avoid.
We're treading on treacherous grounds which could make things worse for everyone.
In the mid-1980s, I was an assistant superintendent in charge of programming in Seven Oaks School Division when I first introduced Holocaust studies to our board of trustees. Since our communities and our trustees were predominantly Jewish and Ukrainian, I followed this up later with Holodomor studies. While neither was overly contentious at that table, emotions were raw and strong. Memories and stories were painfully visceral. And I will never forget them, as I have also never forgotten the public responses with ranged from praise to denial to neo-Nazism.
As we proceeded, I knew that those studies needed to include controversies over economic security, national sovereignty, citizenship and immigration, many of which are directly tied to the Western world's politically privileging economic priorities over human rights.
Additionally, our political landscape needs a wake-up call to go along with any curriculum change of the proposed nature.
Today's politics of difference informs me that if I am not a Jew, I cannot understand or appreciate the injustices of antisemitism. And God forbid that I question the Israeli government's actions in Gaza and the West Bank and criticize their claims about just defending a homeland.
Today's politics of division tell me I have to choose between being Zionist or pro-Palestinian, either for Gaza and against Israel or for Israel against Gaza. I have no problem lining up against Hamas, but I do have problems with lining up with an Israeli government who tries to justify slaughtering tens of thousands of innocent people and their children and simultaneously wiping out education, health care and food aid. Or against those caught in the crossfire.
As it stands, I know schools and teachers are ill-equipped to deal with the inevitable questions they will be asked, the positions they will be asked to take and the backlash they are in for — no matter how even-handed they try to be.
Our schools are intended to be unique safe environments for children where they can learn to think and engage critically with issues bigger than their current understandings and still maintain hope and affirmation. Before we saddle our children and teachers with the responsibility of fixing the world, we adults need to clean up our own acts.
We adults must openly and vigorously support our Jewish friends and neighbours in their efforts to confront and wipe out antisemitism — it's everybody's responsibility. We must continue to support the same basic rights for Jews and Palestinians along with the freedoms, rights and protections statehood offers — what we would want for all peoples. At the same time, we must call the Gaza war what it is — the unjustifiable slaughter of thousands of innocent people.
We must in no way be apologists for Hamas and their wanton hate and cruelty. But we must commit to finding better ways than the killing of masses of civilians and destroying schools, hospitals and homes in the false hope that somehow evil forces and terrorism will be brought to heel. It has never worked before and is unlikely to now.
There is no better guide for human solidarity than the values, norm and mores expressed in the myriad UN declarations and conventions on the desirable rights and freedoms of peoples. They could form the basis for Holocaust education which celebrates humanity and human possibility over division, difference and destruction.
I am worried that any Holocaust curriculum will fail in combating antisemitism without expanded studies and the adult commitments that must accompany it … and a huge dose of truth, reality and generosity toward others with whom we disagree.
John R. Wiens is dean emeritus at the faculty of education, University of Manitoba.